Caution: a whole lot of lust; Lovers and mortal enemies

[Sandy]

Title: Caution: a whole lot of lust; Lovers and mortal enemies: Tony Leung and Tang Wei in Lust, Caution

Source: The London Evening Standard (London, England). (Jan. 3, 2008): News: p33.



Document Type: Article

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2008 Evening Standard Limited
http://www.standard.co.uk/

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Byline: DEREK MALCOLM

Lust, Caution Cert 18 158 mins ...

YOU have to take a deep breath before entering the cinema to see Ang Lee'sChinese epic. There are three main reasons: the first is that it is the longestmovie this director has made, and for the most part the slowest and mostintricate; second, it contains a sequence of a bloody and botched stabbing thatcould have you ducking under your seats; and third is the sex.

This last is the element that people will inevitably remark upon, tending as itdoes towards sado-masochism and causing audiences at last autumn's VeniceFestival to ponder whether the pair were going at it for real. The speculationdrummed extra publicity for a film which, since it is in Mandarin, probablyneeds all the help it can get.

But take heart. That business only lasts 10 minutes or so towards the end ofthe film, and it does attempt to reveal more about its participants than wemight otherwise readily understand..

Moreover, Lust, Caution didn't win the Golden Lion at Venice for nothing. AngLee is an exceptional film-maker and the style is as impeccable as the controlis absolute. If the build-up is long and lingering, there is a purpose to it.

What we have is a drama which perfectly illustrates the fact that war is 90 percent boredom and 10 per cent hell.

The war in question is specifically between China and Japan and it splits itstime between Shanghai and Hong Kong during the years 1938 and 1942.

Wang (Tang Wei) is a traditional young Chinese woman who has become a warorphan and joins a patriotic theatre group largely because she fancies a youngactivist (Wang Lee-Hom) who is fighting against the Japanese occupation of HongKong. The group becomes increasingly subversive and begins to includeassassinations among its activities. Hence the stabbing.

Eventually, Wang is ordered to become the mistress of a highly placedcollaborator (Tony Leung). But before the tryst can get serious he is recalledto Shanghai where, some three years later, he has become head of the secretservice on behalf of the Japanese. This makes him even more of a target,However, when Wang succeeds in making him her lover, having divested herself ofher virginity with somebody else, she finds herself in the midst of conflictingemotions. The sex is real, at least in the emotional terms of the film, sinceshe clearly finds him attractive. But he is also still her mortal enemy.

Whether it is a kind of twisted love, or simple lust, is up to the audience todecide but Leung, the lead in several Wong Kar-Wai romantic epics, has neverhad to perform anything like this before as a leading Asian star and does sowith nuanced aplomb. He is a real actor. And relative newcomer Tang Wei, not aconventional Chinese beauty at all, quietly takes up the challenge and equalshim.

These are two very fine performances which undoubtedly illuminate an otherwiserather languorous if beautifully directed and shot film. It includes aseemingly interminable mah jong session during which what the characters sayand do is less important than the glances they bestow upon each other.

Throughout the first two hours, what we see is a society desperately seekingnormality in highly abnormal times and going about its business as if blind towhat might be about to happen. You need patience, and there are times when youcan't help thinking that a more rigorous editor might have forced Ang Lee tomake an even better film.

This is taken from a short novella by Eileen Changone hopes Ang Lee doesn't undertake a long novel in the future. It might beinterminable. Even so, in the end patience is rewarded.You leave the theatre atrifle exhausted but rewarded by a resonance few films possess. As for the sex,if you want to know my opinion, it wasn't for real, which Ang Lee has now, moreor less reluctantly, hinted at..

DEREK MALCOLM
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition)
"Caution: a whole lot of lust; Lovers and mortal enemies: Tony Leung and Tang Wei in Lust, Caution." London Evening Standard [London, England] 3 Jan. 2008: 33. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.